Fear of failure was Inverness Caley Thistle's driving force to win Scottish Cup says goalscorer Marley Watkins five years on
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Former Inverness Caledonian Thistle forward Marley Watkins believes a fear of failure ensured they lifted the Scottish Cup in 2015.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of Caley Thistle’s 2–1 victory over Falkirk at Hampden, with Watkins opening the scoring in the first half of the final.
Falkirk came roaring back as the more dangerous side after the interval though. It looked like the tide might turn when Carl Tremarco got sent off with 15 minutes left, and Falkirk equalised, before James Vincent scored the winner with four minutes left.
Inverness had secured a third place finish in the Premiership and went into the final as strong favourites against second-tier opposition. There was therefore a determination not to end up on the wrong side of an upset, with Watkins saying anything but lifting the cup after the final whistle would have stayed with him for a long time.
“I just remember having that fear of losing,” the Welsh attacker said.
“Those moments don’t come around that often, so I didn’t want to let it slip, especially against a team we were meant to beat.
“It would have been hard to live with myself.
“I had the fear of failure, which is a good fear. We were confident, I thought we’d win, but you never know on the day and obviously we had the little scare with the red card.
“When the doubt crept in and they equalised, I still just thought ‘we ain’t losing’.
“There was a moment when there was a battle in my head, because obviously I’d given the free kick away they scored from.
“I had to fight it, tell myself we weren’t losing. I could just imagine the summer after, it would have been full of regret.
“It would have lived with me forever so it was definitely a must-win. Thankfully we made it happen.”
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